INDIANAPOLIS—It’s something about which the Pacers, as a franchise, are all too conscious—how they conduct themselves on and off the floor. When reserve guard Lance Stephenson saw Heat star LeBron James clank a technical free throw in the third quarter of the Pacers’ Game 3 win, he crossed his hands over his throat in a chocking gesture, which was caught on camera. Stephenson immediately knew that could be trouble.

And Stephenson is not a guy who can afford trouble. After all, he was arrested after an altercation with his girlfriend back in August 2010, and was demoted to fourth string last year because of “disciplinary reasons.”

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In the wake of the choke-sign incident, Stephenson sought out coach Frank Vogel, who said he appreciated it. “He got to me before I could even get to him and apologized to me for being a distraction, for having it be in the media and on SportsCenter,” Vogel said Saturday. “He knows it was wrong, I agree with him 100 percent it was wrong. It’s not something we condone. He’s a really good kid, he has come a long way with his maturity in the first two years. I fully support who he is as a guy, as a player, as him being one of our guys. I actually want that kind of enthusiasm on the bench. I just don’t want gestures that go over the top.”

The Pacers have carefully rebuilt their image within the community, and after years of being battered at the box office are finally beginning to draw fans back to Bankers Life Fieldhouse—with their series in the conference semifinals against Miami, they’re hoping it will draw fans back for good. The team alienated fans when players like Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson were routinely in trouble, and were suspended for the ugly brawl at the Pistons’ Palace of Auburn Hills in 2004. They don’t want players giving off bad impressions.

“We’re the new Pacers,” Vogel said, “and everything we do is done with class and dignity and respect, showing respect for our opponents.”